Leonid Kravchuk

Leonid Kravchuk (10 January 1934-) was Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR from 23 July 1990 to 5 December 1991 (succeeding Volodymyr Ivashko and preceding ivan Plyushch) and President of Ukraine from 24 August 1991 to 19 July 1994 (preceding Leonid Kuchma).

Biography
Leonid Kravchuk was born in Zytyn Wielki, Volhynia, Poland (now Velykyi Zhytyn, Ukraine) on 10 January 1934, the son of a Polish Army cavalryman who was killed during World War II. He joined the Communist Party of Ukraine in 1958, and he was a member of its agriculture department before becoming a member of the party buro in 1989 and becoming Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR in 1990. After the August Coup of 1991, Kravchuk resigned from the Communist Party, and he persuaded the communist majority to accept the opposition's demands for independence. On 5 December 1991, he was formally elected President of Ukraine, and, on the same day, Ukrainians voted overwhelmingly to secede from the Soviet Union. He became a member of the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine, and he was a compromise figure for both conservatives and reformists. Soon after his defeat in 1994, he joined a group of oligarchs and became associated with big business, organized crime, corruption, and media bias in favor of his Prime Minister Leonid Kuchma. In 2004, he was banned from entering the United States due to his alleged participation in electoral fraud in that year's presidential election.